From the Principal

The recruitment for the next principal of St Mary's College is well under way. In fact, we should have some news in the coming weeks. This is an exciting time for the College as we shape a new strategic plan and welcome a new principal. Thank you to those families who have been a part of both of those processes. I will ensure there is a first-rate handover to the new principal and he/she will have ample opportunity to be involved in the new strategic plan. We look with optimism to 2022!

I would also like to thank the families who are involved with the College community, whether it is through sport, volunteering for excursions, participating in a committee or just being a positive presence at drop off and pick up. You add another dimension to the community and I am grateful for your efforts and contributions. 

I came across a quote from Nano Nagle today: 'By degrees, with God’s assistance, we can do a great deal'. It is simple, but it conveys a great deal. It implies a collective and working together. It tells us that change is gradual. It calls us to faith in God, or perhaps reminds us that we need God’s help. And it tells us that much is possible. 

Nano Nagle was a 'mover and shaker' in her day. She broke the law to set up schools for Catholics in Ireland at a time they were forbidden from education. She provided food and basic care to the poorest people in Cork at risk to herself. Seeing the importance of the work she was doing, she decided she needed more people to do the work, and that the work needed to be sustained long after she was gone. That is where the Presentation Sisters come from. 

We continue in this vein, albeit in a different context. We endeavour to educate through the perspective of social justice and compassion. Thanks for being partners in this Presentation legacy. We are Presentation people, together! 

The following reflection is by Presentation Sister, Raphael Consedine.

Nano,

your heart yearned to embrace the world, but you always were held within narrow streets. 

Each day’s pilgrimage was walled. You fared beyond no far seas to share God's Word. 

No. You kindled fire on homely hearths, 

small sparks of hope within the dark. 

But within... ah, within... there blazed such fire, such beacon of desire to see the dream of God made real on earth, that still it flames to kindle other hearts afar in space and time. 

And we, whose steps are held in walled in and narrow ways, ask only this: 

May we burn with like desire while here we seek to bring the dream of God alive today in this small corner of our yearning world.

Helen Spencer

Principal